Differentiating the effect of social enterprise activities on health

Bobby Macaulay,Micaela Mazzei,Michael J Roy,Simon Teasdale,Cam Donaldson

doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.01.042

Bobby Macaulay, Micaela Mazzei + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.01.042

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Abstract

An emerging stream of literature has focused on the ways in which social enterprises might act on the social determinants of health. However, this previous work has not taken a sufficiently broad account of the wide range of stakeholders involved in social enterprises and has also tended to reduce and simplify a complex and heterogeneous set of organisations to a relatively homogenous social enterprise concept. In an attempt to address these gaps, we conducted an empirical investigation between August 2014 and October 2015 consisting of qualitative case studies involving in-depth semi-structured interviews and a focus group with a wide variety of stakeholders from three social enterprises in different regions of Scotland. We found that different forms of social enterprise impact on different dimensions of health in different ways, including through: engendering a feeling of ownership and control; improving environmental conditions (both physical and social); and providing or facilitating meaningful employment. In conclusion, we highlight areas for future research.

Highlights

Understanding the role of organisations that work outside of formal health systems – within civil society, for example (Borzaga and Fazzi, 2014; Giarelli et al, 2014) – but which act to address factors in the social environment that favour or harm health, has been the subject of significant focus in recent times
We found that different forms of social enterprise impact on different dimensions of health in different ways, including through: engendering a feeling of ownership and control; improving environmental conditions; and providing or facilitating meaningful employment
We found that different types of social enterprise impact on different dimensions of health in different ways, including through: engendering a feeling of ownership and control; improving the environment; and providing or facilitating meaningful employment

Summary

Introduction

Rather than focusing attention on the role that social enterprises can play in providing health and social care products or services directly (Calò et al, 2017; Hall et al, 2015, 2012; Millar, 2012; Millar et al, 2016), this literature suggests that through addressing social vulnerabilities (Teasdale, 2010), social enterprises can improve individual and community health through acting on social determinants of health (Dahlgren and Whitehead, 1991; Solar and Irwin, 2010) This may involve providing or facilitating employment, developing social networks and connectedness; and/or improving the social and environmental conditions of the community. Craig et al, 2008) to identify processes and causal pathways between certain social enterprise-led activities and potential impacts on different dimensions of health and wellbeing These range from aspects of physical and mental health, to social determinants such as income, education, housing quality, employment and working conditions, to associated aspects such as self-confidence, social connectedness and empowerment

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